In writing “Letter to Jamaica” Simon Bolivar does a very good job of outlining and expressing his views and ideas on the current situation Americans were in and the possible future of South America he so vividly imagines. The letter details various solutions to the issues he first explains and I found his thoughts to be a nice blend of intellectual thought and revolutionary spirit and fight. In particular, I found the following passage very interesting.
“We have been harassed by a conduct which has not only deprived us of our rights but has kept us in a sort of permanent infancy with regard to public affairs. If we could at least have managed our domestic affairs and our internal administration, we could have acquainted ourselves with the processes and mechanics of public affairs.”
Simon Bolivar highlights how non-involvement in any public affairs posesses a challenge to establishing a system after revolution and in many ways what Bolivar is explaining offered me an answer to the perpetual difficulties Latin American political systems have had. Time and time again we have seen governments or dictatorships that are corrupt, unstable, and generally ineffective. Periods of political prosperity ruined by military coups and in turn, governments following these dictatorships often incompetent in their governing as well. Maybe this political unrest can be attributed to the sort of political-illiteracy Bolivar explains.
Later on, when considering what political system freed Latin America should attempt, Bolivar suggests that they should “not adopt the best system of government, but the one that is most likely to succeed.” Once again I found that this is still very much a relevant thought and one that can be applied to numerous disastrous cases across Latin America. While Bolivar means that they themselves should pick one that is most likely to succeed, I thought of what he says in relation to how a system such as capitalism has been tried and in many ways forced upon Latin American countries. I find myself agreeing with Bolivar because many believed this was the best system and were seeking to model other countries success but would have been better off picking a system more suited to the realities of Latin-American life. For example, If we compare health and education outcomes in Cuba to other countries in the region such as Haiti and Honduras, we can see how “a system more likely to succeed” is much more effective than what may be perceived as the “best” system.